Chapter 13 "I went to sell myself!"...
Leng Cuizhu was going to buy a wine jar for the New Year's wine, but she couldn't carry it by herself, so she agreed to You En's request to go to the street with her.
Her family was buying New Year's goods, and other families were naturally buying as well. With everyone buying, the streets were packed with people.
Afraid that Eun would get lost, she let him hold her sleeve. After being bumped by a passing man, she struggled with her feelings for a long time before finally agreeing to take his hand.
If you hold hands, you'll never get lost.
"You didn't eat anything this morning, are you hungry? How about we go get some wontons first?"
Leng Cuizhu's legs ached from walking.
“Okay,” the man nodded, “but I can’t finish a bowl.”
"It's okay, we'll share." She covered her nose and forced a smile. "Let's go."
The main problem was that she really didn't want to walk anymore. In addition, the pedestrians on the street were a mixed bag, and many of the fishermen and strong men who passed by smelled terrible, making her dizzy.
If I had known, I shouldn't have left so early; it's the time when everyone else is at work.
They found a secluded spot at the wonton stall to sit down, so that when Eun lifted the veil, no one could see his unusual hair color, and Leng Cuizhu couldn't smell the man's stench.
Leng Cuizhu asked the owner for a small bowl and shared the food with You En.
"I'll just have the soup."
He poured the wontons from the bowl into her bowl: "Mrs. Wonton, please eat."
"Ah... okay, I'm actually a little hungry too."
Leng Cuizhu looked at the thin-skinned wontons poured into her bowl, then at the man who had been stirring the soup with a spoon for a long time, and fell silent.
Does he not know how to use chopsticks and spoons?
Perhaps they didn't even know what wontons were, otherwise they wouldn't be in such an embarrassing situation now.
If you expose him, he'll be even more embarrassed.
She ate her wontons in silence.
The wontons sold at the street stalls were far better than the ones she made at home; the wrappers were thin, the fillings were generous, and there were even a few pieces of seaweed floating on the surface of the soup.
"I'll be gone for a while." Eun lowered the veil to cover her face and brushed the strands of hair from her shoulders behind her back.
"May I wait here, Madam?"
“Of course you can.” Leng Cuizhu nodded. “Be careful not to get lost.”
She sat alone at the stall eating wontons, and after finishing a bowl, she sat obediently waiting for Eun to come back.
The soup bowl beside me still had more than half a bowl of wonton soup left, steaming hot.
She got impatient and started to doze off, resting her chin on her hand. Just before her head was about to droop, a soft call pulled her back to reality.
"Wife"
The newcomer was a bearded young man who looked both old and young.
He was dressed in fine clothes, unlike ordinary people: "Madam, may I sit at the same table with you? The other places are not very convenient, with noisy music. This place is convenient and quiet."
"ah……"
She was still not fully awake, and subconsciously agreed, "Of course."
The young man turned his head and said respectfully, "Sir, let's sit here! It's secluded."
Leng Cuizhu also turned her head away, her whole body trembling.
Yin Yuan was dressed in casual clothes, with a cicada-patterned outer garment over them. He had a jade pendant hanging from one side of his waist and a sword on the other.
The young man wiped the bench clean with a handkerchief and invited Yin Yuan to sit opposite him.
That is, the place where Eun was sitting just now.
The soup bowl on the table had not yet been cleared away.
Yin Yuan frowned and moved the soup bowl aside.
The young man found a low stool and sat down. Seeing the bowl, he broke the silence: "Oh, so someone else was asking your wife to sit at the same table just now."
"Haha...My wife is beautiful, so naturally those men are scrambling to get her, haha."
Leng Cuizhu: "...Hmm." Her heart was pounding, and she stared down at the cracked tabletop.
The chill was bone-chilling, penetrating from head to toe.
Why is Yin Yuan here?
"Prefect, please take a look at the menu. I'll tell the owner what you'd like to eat!"
The young man stroked his beard: "I will tell you about that case from the side."
Yin Yuan gripped the edge of the menu, glanced at the person opposite him, and said, "Hmm."
Leng Cuizhu felt anxious under the gaze. She didn't know whether to put down her chopsticks or not, so she stuck them in the bowl, not daring to stir the soup.
If she leaves now, Eun won't be able to find her when he comes back.
But if Eun comes back and finds her, how will she explain it to the other person?
Now, all we can do is hope that Yin Yuan leaves quickly and You En returns slowly.
The young man stopped after saying a few words: "Wife, are you not feeling well?"
"Your pale complexion indicates insufficient qi and blood; you should take better care of it. How about this, I'll treat you to a bowl of red date and goji berry soup! Plenty of red dates, lots of goji berries, and lots of broth!"
"No……"
Before Leng Cuizhu could refuse, the young man took the menu and went to order from the owner.
"Traveling with friends?"
"yes……"
Yin Yuan picked up the soup bowl on the table, ran his fingertips along the rim, glanced at the spoon in the bowl a few times, and then quickly put it back on the table.
"man?"
She looked up in surprise.
"Did I guess right?"
The man's eyes were deep and unreadable, revealing neither joy nor anger. He glanced at her indifferently and said, "Rushing to be first..."
“It wasn’t a man,” she said, biting her lip and wringing her handkerchief. “It was Granny Chang from next door. She helped me fix the door lock when I moved in, and we became friends after that.”
"She went to the butcher shop to buy meat. My legs were sore from walking too much, so she told me to wait for her here."
"...She'll be back in a bit."
Leng Cuizhu didn't lie much; she simply referred to the man as a woman.
Actually, there's not much difference between men and women; it's just that men are often petty and like to explain all relationships with lust. So, to avoid trouble, she told this little lie.
The man pondered for a moment.
"Leg pain?"
Leng Cuizhu secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "It doesn't hurt anymore."
"Come sit here."
She glanced at the street and, not seeing You En, sat down next to Yin Yuan with her eyes lowered.
"My lord... in broad daylight, this..."
Before she could finish speaking, the man leaned in and stared intently at the side of her neck.
He stroked her slender neck with the back of his hand and kneaded her delicate ear cartilage.
"The earrings, were they also a gift from a friend?"
She realized that the earrings she was wearing today were a gift from Eun, which she had picked out from a jewelry shop; Yin Yuan had never seen them before.
If it were just ordinary earrings, that would be fine, but they were heavy gold earrings, which she definitely couldn't afford with her money alone.
"……yes."
"Tacky."
The man reached out, took off one of his earrings, and threw it on the table.
Knowing she was in the wrong, she took the other one and held it in her palm.
"...I will not wear it anymore."
The man stopped rubbing his leg.
"It's not suitable for you."
He withdrew his hand, and Leng Cuizhu smoothed out the wrinkles on her skirt, saying softly, "Thank you, my lord... for massaging my legs, it feels very good."
She was only focused on getting Yin Yuan to leave as soon as possible, so she spoke carelessly without caring about what she was saying.
The man didn't look at her; he stared straight ahead with his eyes half-closed.
"Take a sedan chair back." He handed her a silver ingot and said in a deep voice, "I clearly gave you gold jewelry."
Leng Cuizhu touched the silver ingot, carefully put it into her purse, and looked up to ask, "What did you just say, sir?"
"Sit back down."
The young man returned after ordering and, as soon as he sat down, exclaimed, "Prefect, you smell so good!"
Yin Yuan: "..."
"The boss placed incense burners on every table, that's why it smells so good," Leng Cuizhu said, pointing to the small incense burners on the table.
"So that's how it is."
The young man smiled and said, "Prefect, let me continue telling you about that case."
“A few days ago, fishermen discovered the carcasses of cattle and sheep under the ice. The number was huge, with an initial estimate of thirty.”
"The deaths of those cattle and sheep were gruesome and bizarre. At first, the constables thought that some madman was stealing other people's cattle and sheep to kill for his own amusement. Later, the coroner found a woman's hair in the stomach of a calf, and then found something that looked like meat in the stomachs of the other three calfs. The meat was rotten and crawling with maggots. We still haven't found out what kind of meat it was."
"It shouldn't be cured meat."
Yin Yuan nodded: "Warn the fishermen who witnessed this to keep this matter secret, and investigate the case discreetly."
Leng Cuizhu felt nauseous upon hearing this, so she lowered her head, folded her legs, and put on a handkerchief.
When exactly are we leaving?
"Prefect, there's also..."
Yin Yuan: "Let's talk again when we get back."
"Uh..." The young man stopped talking.
Realizing something was wrong, he turned around and bowed to Leng Cuizhu, saying, "My lady, my apologies! I forgot you were still here. Did I frighten you?"
"The red date and goji berry soup is here, my wife, please try it! It's good for beauty and health, I drink it often."
"……Thanks."
She had just scooped up the soup when she felt a sharp gaze directed at her.
Yin Yuan remained expressionless.
The millet porridge in front of him remained untouched.
"Prefect, why aren't you eating?"
"Don't call me Prefect."
The young man clapped his hands: "That's right! We should hide our identities."
"No wonder you don't call me County Lieutenant."
"My lady, don't mention going. I need to conceal my identity as the prefect and I."
"My lord, you..."
The young man was speechless under the man's glare and hastily swallowed his words.
The atmosphere was terrifyingly cold, and Leng Cuizhu dared not touch the ladle: "Thank you, my lord, but this soup... I'll pack it up and take it home to drink."
Yin Yuan: "Mm."
"...?" The young man looked puzzled, but dared not utter a sound. He could only patiently count how many copper coins he had spent on his order.
Leng Cuizhu couldn't stand it any longer. She glanced at Yin Yuan and the young man leaving the wonton stall and stood not far away watching You En's figure.
"Hey, Lady Leng."
“Miss Lily of the Valley,” she said, surprised to see so many people she knew today, “hello.”
The maidservant curtsied: "It's been so long, how are your injuries?"
Leng Cuizhu smiled and said, "It's almost done."
The young maid nodded, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked, "Does your household not have a curfew?"
"……ah?"
“Yesterday, your child stayed at the Yin residence.”
"I don't know much either. I just happened to see him running out of the room with his clothes disheveled when I went to sweep at dawn."
When You En returned from buying a sachet for Leng Cuizhu, he saw that she looked worried and asked, "What's wrong, Madam? Has something happened?"
"……nothing."
She forced a smile: "You went to buy me a sachet, huh..."
"Yes, I saw that Madam was covering her nose the whole way."
The man bent down and knelt in front of her.
Leng Cuizhu immediately sobered up and glanced at the passersby in a panic: "What are you doing? Get up quickly."
"Wait a moment."
The man tied the jasmine sachet to the pouch at her waist, looked up at her and smiled: "Alright, this way when we walk on the street, we'll smell the fragrance of flowers."
The man knelt in front of her and looked up at her.
Leng Cuizhu always felt that there was something strange about this posture.
At the same time, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. It was as if Eun had once knelt before her like this, looking at her devoutly, as if she were a deity.
"...Thank you."
Eun took her right hand and led her into the veil.
"Can I kiss you?"
Leng Cuizhu: "No, saying thank you is enough."
“Oh,” the man stood up, still holding her hand, “Shall we go home?”
"Mmm." She let him lead her.
For some reason, I felt a chill down my spine.
After returning home, Leng Cuizhu still remembered what Linglan had said.
She was terrified that Leng Zhen would do something like that—staying out all night, disheveled, and the location was none other than the Yin residence.
That kind of extremely outrageous thing.
These past few days, she's been so focused on guarding against Yin Yuan that she's neglected the potential threat of Leng Zhen.
Even if Yin Yuan doesn't come, Leng Zhen can go to the Yin residence to find him! How could she forget that?
But how could she be sure that the person she was meeting with in secret was Yin Yuan...? She couldn't possibly ask him to take off his pants to check, could she? Leng Zhen was already so grown up, not a baby anymore.
If it were just about coaxing Yin Yuan to take off his clothes, that would be much simpler, but Yin Yuan is probably... the one from the back, right? What could we possibly know from that?
She actually knew very little about homosexuality.
"Sister, you're a pervert, aren't you?!"
The rooster suddenly jumped up: "What kind of vulgar nonsense are you spouting?! Wait... isn't this the dark web?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot the original book was a purely erotic restricted novel... Hahaha, what a mess... In that case, your guess is indeed possible, after all, these kinds of novels usually involve sex before lovemaking."
"Oh, it's okay. Everything takes time. You'll definitely accept it eventually."
Leng Cuizhu: "I will never accept it."
"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would never have slept with him in the first place. I should never have used my unborn child as a bargaining chip."
"Actually, I knew from the beginning. The prostitutes in the brothel all need to know one thing—that is, 'that's how men are.' They all knew it, and they all chose to endure it without saying a word, because resistance is painful, and resistance means sacrifice."
The scissors she used to stab herself more than a decade ago still cause her a dull ache.
"Just because I've always been obedient, does that give them the right to squeeze out my living space?"
"On what grounds?"
“You said that I am in a book that doesn’t talk about morality but only about desire, where everything in the book serves desire, including me. But my desires have never been taken seriously. They just think I’m useful, to be used to vent their lust and to have children.”
"Since they never acknowledge me, why should I accept this unfair situation?"
Even though she was timid by nature, life had worn down her edges.
Even though she wasn't resolute, could only crawl like a snail, and was always in tears, always subconsciously compliant.
But she could no longer sit idly by and wait for her fate.
The rooster stared in disbelief.
To be honest, it didn't quite understand, even after all she explained. The premise is the premise; why couldn't it be accepted?
But he was glad that he hadn't been born a woman with such a tragic fate as her.
Yes. Even though he said he wanted to become a woman to comfort her and understand her pain, he didn't actually want to become a woman.
"So... what do you plan to do?"
When Leng Zhen returned home at night, she saw her mother sitting in the corridor from afar.
Leng Cuizhu walked towards him: "Zhenzhen, you went to gather herbs again?"
"Yes." Leng Zhen nodded, put the medicine basket on the ground, and stretched her shoulders.
His anger had mostly subsided. After all, more than ten days had passed since his argument with Leng Cuizhu at Qingluo Lake, and he wasn't one to hold grudges.
Besides, holding a grudge is useless; his mother won't apologize for it.
Actually, it's useful.
If he holds a grudge and ignores her, she will be very sad. Most of the time, he doesn't want to see her sad or upset.
"Why aren't you going to sleep? Yin Yuan's here again."
Leng Cuizhu gasped.
"You didn't come... Your mother has something to ask you, so I'm waiting for you to come home here."
Leng Zhen nodded: "Oh, go ahead and ask."
Leng Cuizhu hesitated and asked, "You...aren't you a virgin anymore?"
She didn't directly ask Leng Zhen if he was gay, choosing instead to save him some face.
Actually, she didn't want to ask. There's a difference between men and women, and such a question is both explicit and hurtful.
Leng Zhen merely frowned, her expression otherwise unchanged: "Who told you?"
"That's not true."
"And then..."
Leng Zhen interrupted her: "I'm leaving."
He picked up the medicine basket and started to leave. Leng Cuizhu hurriedly tried to stop him and grabbed the basket, but the sling on his shoulder broke, and the basket fell to the ground, spilling all its contents.
Hidden beneath the herbs was a huge pile of gold and silver treasures!
Jade pendants, gold hairpins, prayer beads, necklaces... the list goes on and on, scattered all over the ground.
Leng Cuizhu had never seen such a spectacle before.
"Where...where did you get so many precious things?"
"yes!"
Leng Zhen was extremely agitated: "Yes, I went to sell myself!"
His eyes reddened: "Why can't I? You've always sold them, why can't I? I earned all of these things through my own abilities, it's none of your business!"
"Sell……"
Leng Cuizhu's vision went black, and she fainted.
When I woke up again, I was in bed.
Eun lay beside her, propping his chin up as he looked at her, his white hair spread across the pillow.
"woke up?"
"I found you collapsed alone in the corridor, so I carried you back."
"Ah..." Leng Cuizhu's head was spinning. "Thank you."
"Wouldn't I be very dirty? How can I lie on the bed..." She struggled to prop herself up, but her head was too dizzy, and she fell back onto the bed.
The man covered her with the blanket: "You've changed your clothes."
"ah?"
"He only changed his outer clothes."
"Thank you, thank you..."
She breathed a sigh of relief: "Have you seen Leng Zhen? Has he rested too?"
Eun turned his gaze: "When I came in just now, he was guarding the door, so he doesn't know now."
Should I come and take a look at it for you?
"This is troublesome."
The man sat up and deftly took off his robe.
He was only wearing an outer robe, and his bare, flawless upper body was completely seen by Leng Cuizhu.
She was slightly surprised: "...What are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I forgot again, you have to take off all your clothes to turn back into a crow."
"I'll go... I'll go."
"Need not."
He narrowed his silver eyes, observing the scene in the room through the semi-transparent window screen: "He has already climbed in through the window."
As Leng Zhen approached the bedside, Leng Cuizhu had just hidden her robes and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.
The rustling sound indicated that the bed curtains had been pulled back.
Then, her hand, which was resting on the pillow, was grabbed, and something cold covered her.
"I will be sad if you are not happy, and I will be in pain if you are happy."
"But Mother, I still hope you will be happy."
"You can be happy, but you can't be without pain. You must be like me... Don't abandon me..."
"It's all because of you. For you, I've been seducing and flirting... I've suffered so much, can you believe it?"
"Look at me, I'm in so much pain."
A heart-wrenching pain spread from her wrist bone. She jerked her hand back and opened her eyes to find her hand covered in blood.
The wound on his wrist was oozing blood.
Leng Cuizhu's eyes widened as she forced back her pain: "What are you doing!"
Leng Zhen knelt by the bed, holding a knife in one hand and wiping the bloodstains splattered on her cheek with the other.
"Oh...no." He gasped for breath, grinning, "How come you're awake?"
He clearly drugged her.
So, if the pain becomes unbearable, you'll still wake up, right?
Right?
Their good days are coming.
"Mother, does it hurt?"
"Are you crazy...?"
Leng Cuizhu looked at the wound on her wrist. Blood was gushing out from the exposed flesh like a small mouth. Through the slippery bloodstains on her skin, she caught a glimpse of her own bright red reflection.
The fear vanished instantly.
"Smack—"
Leng Zhen was slapped to the ground by her.
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